Who knows how much stage blood the Grand Guignol spilled over the years? It came in varieties. The darker, more viscous blood showed older, coagulated wounds; the lighter stuff was used for fresh slashes. This attention to detail developed from …
Archive for the ‘History’ Category
A Pox on Tom Dooley
Mar
28
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Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you’re bound to die
In the American murder ballad “Tom Dooley,” Tom’s hanging head takes on a different connotation when …
Wilde Accusations
Feb
21
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“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” –Oscar Wilde
On February 18, 1895, Lord John Douglas the Marquis of Queensbury left his business card at the Albemarle Club for Oscar Wilde, who was his son’s lover. A note …
How to Be Bad
Jan
31
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Where can you go for immoral instruction? You can find plenty of pontification about Victorian morals, but the street-smart facts about amorality rarely come through book learning. Fortunately, we have The Right Way to Do Wrong, “Yellow Kid” Weil: …
Victorian Vs.
Jan
03
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As the temporally displaced masses cry, “Burn the calendars! Anachrony now!” they need to know a few things about history before they can alter history. Where has an impact on when, so it’s time for a review of Victorian vs. …
You’re a Bad Man, Stagger Lee
Dec
04
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On Christmas Day, 1895, Billy Lyons took St. Louis pimp Lee Shelton’s Stetson hat. In return, Shelton shot Lyons, took his hat back and walked away. The event was commemorated in a popular murder ballad that took Shelton’s nickname, “Stagger …
The Day of Two Noons
Nov
22
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Our conception of time altered radically on the Day of Two Noons. On November 18, 1883, the Unites States railway system clocks adopted Standard Time. Clocks across the country were reset at noon for a double dose of lunchtime. Or …
Madman Murders Mayor
Oct
25
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On October 28, 1893, lone gunman Patrick Eugene Joseph Prendergast shot and killed Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. The delusional, obsessively postcard-writing Prendergast believed that the mayor owed him a political office. His strangely premeditated crime served to be …
Dear Midnight of Love
Oct
11
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Beneath the corrupt exterior of alderman “Bathhouse John” Coughlin beat the heart of a poet. On October 8, 1900, his sentimental ballad Dear Midnight of Love debuted at the Chicago Opera House, sung by thirteen-year-old May “The Silver-Tongued Nightingale” de …
The Facts in the Case of Edgar Allan Poe
Oct
04
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Of course I shall not pretend to consider it any matter of wonder, that the extraordinary case of Edgar Allan Poe has excited discussion. It would have been a miracle had it not—especially under the circumstances. Though the desire of …
